Electrical connectors are used in a wide variety of applications for terminating discrete electrical wires. For instance, an electrical connector is used to terminate the conductor wires of a multi-conductor electrical cable.
Such electrical connectors often are used simply to terminate the ends of the conductor wires so that the wires can be interconnected to the terminals of a complementary mating connector device. On the other hand, connectors are used to terminate the conductor wires "in-line", i.e. between opposite ends of one or more conductor wires. These latter types of connectors commonly are called tap connectors. Still other connectors interconnect adjacent ends of a pair of conductor wires, for instance, and these types of connectors commonly are called splice connectors. In the art, the term "tap" connector often has been used to designate both tap connectors and splice connectors as described above, and that term will be used herein with such an understanding.
Tap connectors often are used for interconnection to an electrical cable having a plurality of conductor wires. One of the problems with such usage is that the wires are closely spaced within the cable and must be spread apart for termination in the tap connector. This is particularly true when the tap connector includes insulation displacement terminals for termination to insulated conductor wires of the electrical cable. Separating and spreading the conductor wires of the cable often is done by hand which is very tedious and not very cost effective. Another problem is maintaining the discrete conductor wires generally parallel to each other during termination. This latter problem is particularly prevalent with insulation displacement terminations.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems and satisfying a need for a very simple and inexpensive tap connector of the character described.